Fire leaps out of the vat of fry oil Hatem uses to make falafel at his small restaurant. Usually, this is an accident and an occupational hazard that occurs when water makes contact with the hot oil. But this time, it’s intentional. Hatem is contributing to the pyrotechnics of the Ahly ultras who have been setting off fireworks, chanting and singing during their four-day-long sit-in across from his small restaurant near the barricades outside Parliament.

An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced former Housing Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Suleiman, Alaa Mubarak’s father-in-law Magdy Rasekh, and businessmen Yahya al-Komi and Imad al-Hazeq on charges of illegally seizing state land and squandering public funds. The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Suleiman to eight years in prison, according to the state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA)

On the "Cairo Today" talk show on Wednesday, presented by TV Anchor Amr Adeeb on Orbit channel, presidential contender Abul-Ezz El-Hariri asserted that the People's Assembly should be dismissed, adding that he did not see a Islamic trend in Egypt. El-Hariri, an elected MP and long-time political activist, is running on the Socialist Popular Alliance (SPA) ticket.

France said Thursday it had banned four Muslim preachers from entering France to attend an Islamic conference, saying their "calls for hatred and violence" were a threat to public order. President Nicolas Sarkozy had wanted to ban the high-profile Islamic clerics from attending the conference next month in the wake of a series of killings by Al-Qaeda inspired gunman Mohamed Merah that shocked France.

Prominent liberal politician Ayman Nour said Thursday he will run for president after submitting his initial candidacy papers to the Presidential Elections Commission on Friday. In a press conference, Nour, who is head of the Ghad al-Thawra Party, said the party’s supreme authority decided in a meeting on Thursday to have him represent it in the election.

A coalition of members of the constituent assembly who have recently resigned from the body, together with key political and civil society figures, announced they would be forming an alternative assembly in a press conference Tuesday. In a signed statement, the coalition declared their "utter refusal" of the process by which members were elected. They confirmed they would be drafting their own version of the constitution that would better reflect Egypt's "plurality and diversity."

Major General Mahmoud Nasr, assistant defense minister for finance and member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, said that only 4.2 percent of the state budget is allocated for the army, which is less than half the budget of the Education Ministry, despite the magnitude of the armed forces’ expenses. “This is why the army is investing in other businesses, such as foodstuff and garments, to generate income,” he said in a press briefing Tuesday. “And all our expenditures are supervised by the Central Auditing Agency.”

The April 6 Youth Movement (Democratic Front) has called for the amendment of articles 28 and 60 of the constitutional declaration issued by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in March 2011. Article 28 deals with the method of electing the president and article 60 deals with the formation of the constituent assembly tasked with drafting Egypt's new constitution.

The heads of parties and political powers represented in the People's Assembly agreed in a meeting with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Egypt’s military leader, to meet again within two days to discuss their ideas of how to resolve the constitution standoff. During the meeting Tuesday, Tantawi said the armed forces had a plan for the road ahead since the beginning of the interim period.

The majority of the Cairo Court of Appeals General Assembly voted that court president Abdel Moez Ibrahim stay in office, Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on Tuesday. Out of a total of 861 judges, 310 attended the assembly, just over the 287 judges to meet a quorum. Al-Ahram newspaper reported that 154 judges voted in favor of Ibrahim and 101 voted against. Ahmed al-Zend, president of the Judges Club, attended the assembly and announced the results.

Hesham El Bastawisi, reformist judge and ex-vice president of the Court of Cassation, announced in a press conference Tuesday, that he will enter the upcoming presidential elections as the candidate of the the left-wing Tagammu party.

The Cultural Constitution Movement has announced Monday it is joining the Constitution for all Egyptians Front, a newly formed coalition of revolutionary and political groups campaigning for a fair and representative constitution. The coalition, which was announced last week, opposes the process of electing members to the constituent assembly, which sees 50 per cent of the figures chosen from the Islamist-dominated parliament and 50 per cent chosen from non-parliamentarians.

Egypt and Turkey signed an agreement on Monday in which Turkey will renovate religious artifacts in Cairo and Alexandria. Al-Azhar, the Antiquities Ministry and the Religious Endowments Ministry signed the agreement for the Egyptian side, while the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA) inked the agreement for the Turkish side.

In a statement published Sunday, the Union of Egyptian Writers strongly condemned the methods use to determine the constituent assembly, which saw 50 per cent of the seats chosen from the Islamist-dominated People's Assembly and Shura Council and 50 per cent chosen from outside parliament.

The judicial committee supervising the inventory of the 25 presidential palaces in Egypt said on Monday said that no holdings, documents or artifacts are missing. Last year, Egyptian news reports said that former President Mubarak seized a number of items before leaving for Sharm el-Sheikh, where he has resided since his ouster in February.

A group of legal experts have called for limiting the presidential power to declare a state of emergency, saying the judiciary should oversee such declarations. The call was among a list of recommendations set forward during a Sunday conference, organized by the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Profession. The conference, attended by 200 judges and lawyers, focused on establishing and protecting the independence of judicial authorities in Egypt’s new constitution, Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on Tuesday.

The votes are still being counted, but the names of the hundred people nominated to draft Egypt’s next constitution have been announced. Since Parliament decided to appoint half the members from within its ranks, the list is dominated by Islamists, as expected. Thirty-six of the 50 MPs come from parliamentary blocs of either the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party or the Salafi-oriented Nour Party. But what about the other 50 members and their affiliations?

Several hundred Ultras Ahlawy members, Ahly club's hardcore football fans, embarked on an open-ended sit-in starting Sunday in front of the People's Assembly demanding retribution for the Port Said football disaster that saw over 74 Ahly fans killed by groups who appeared to be rioting Masry supporters.

The head of the Illicit Gains Authority on Sunday called on the media to be accurate about the presumed wealth of former President Hosni Mubarak and other officials from his regime. “The media claims they have billions abroad whereas this is not true, at least from what we know so far,” said Assem al-Gohary, the authority head.

The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting Egypt's post-January 25 Revolution constitution will be held Wednesday to prepare the main guidelines of its business in the coming weeks. The meeting, which will be headed by speaker of the People's Assembly Saad El-Katatni, will elect a chairman and two deputies and divide the assembly into committees, to each one of which will be entrusted with drafting a certain chapter of the constitution, and clarify the procedures necessary to reach consensus on a final draft.

The first meeting of the Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting Egypt's post-January 25 Revolution constitution will be held Wednesday to prepare the main guidelines of its business in the coming weeks. The meeting, which will be headed by speaker of the People's Assembly Saad El-Katatni, will elect a chairman and two deputies and divide the assembly into committees, to each one of which will be entrusted with drafting a certain chapter of the constitution, and clarify the procedures necessary to reach consensus on a final draft.